Ellie Park, Multimedia Managing Editor

For centuries, Yale students have participated in protests and social activism, ranging from a walkout over an instructional policy change to rallies against South African apartheid and the murder trials of Bobby Seale and three other Black Panthers.

In the past four years, student activism has primarily focused on the University’s investments in the fossil fuel industry, the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and affirmative action, and Israel’s war in Gaza and Yale’s investments in weapons manufacturers. 

Students push for fossil fuel divestment

On Oct. 5, 2021, hundreds of students gathered on Beinecke Plaza for one of the first mass protests of the decade. The students called on Yale to disclose its fossil fuel holdings and divest from what organizers labeled “destructive industries,” while increasing its investment in New Haven.  

The fossil fuel divestment movement was organized by the Endowment Justice Coalition — now known as the Endowment Justice Collective — a student organization which advocates for the ethical allocation of Yale’s endowment. According to a press release from the EJC at the time, protesters took issue with the University’s allocation of its endowment, especially given a recent launch of the University’s capital campaign under the name “For Humanity.”

Following the large October rally, a University spokesperson emphasized Yale’s commitment to addressing climate change through “research and teaching, innovative strategies to reduce emissions on campus and the constant re-examination of its investment policies” in an email to the News.

Supreme Court turnovers

In May 2022, after Politico leaked a draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion that would overturn the Roe v. Wade decision which had established a constitutional right to abortion, more than 100 students rallied on Cross Campus. The next month, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe, declaring that the constitutional right to abortion would  no longer exist. 

Even before the Dobbs case was leaked in May 2022, Yale students held rallies in support of the right to a abortion. On Jan. 22, 2022, the Yale chapter of the Medical Students for Choice organization hosted an event in support of the protection of abortion and reproductive healthcare in response to the Dobbs case. Yale New Haven Health physicians and local community activists spoke about reproductive care and justice. 

By October 2022, the Supreme Court was hearing oral arguments in two cases challenging affirmative action — and Yale students were already on the steps of the Court. Over 40 students traveled to Washington to protest the potential repeal of race-conscious admissions. Back in New Haven, rallies and teach-ins unfolded across cultural centers and student groups.

By June 2023, the Supreme Court declared race-conscious college admissions unconstitutional, limiting the admissions office’s ability to consider candidates’ races when making decisions on applications.

Students call for divestment from weapons manufacturers amid post-Oct. 7 war

When Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel responded with a sustained siege on Gaza, the conflict was immediately felt throughout the Yale community.

In the weeks that followed, Yale became a microcosm of a broader national reckoning. Rallies, vigils and walkouts multiplied. Students spoke to the News about fears of doxxing and social ostracization. By the spring semester, Yale’s investment in weapons manufacturers dominated student discourse. Protesters established two encampments on campus in April and May inspired by movements at Columbia and Harvard. Both were ultimately dispersed by campus and local police. The first encampment — on Beinecke Plaza — ended in pre-dawn arrests on April 22. The second, on Cross Campus, was cleared without arrests on April 30.

Despite students’ protests, the Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility decided that military weapons manufacturing did not meet its criteria for divestment.

This spring, exactly one year after the 2024 encampments, a campus visit from a far-right Israeli minister drew hundreds of protesters to Beinecke Plaza, where a temporary encampment was established. The protesters dispersed in less than four hours, but the next day, the University revoked the club status of Yalies4Palestine, citing University policy violations at the Beinecke protest, which Yalies4Palestine publicized on their social media.

Over 40 Yale students were arrested in April and May 2024 during pro-Palestinian campus protests.